Study Habits?

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Hi everyone! I'm usually a lurker, with just a few posts, but I couldn't find this thread in the pre-vet forum (which I was surprised about, btw, so if there already is this topic, feel free to just send me that way :)) so I wanted to start it!

I'm curious about people's study habits in vet school (or what people are planning on doing)- what works, what doesn't.

I know that different things work for different people, but in high school/college I was able to do well with just minimal studying last minute for most things so I'm open to a multitude of suggestions just to try it.

I'm under no delusion that my previous study "skills" will work in vet school, so I wanted to see what other people have found that does.

Thanks!!!

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I realized late in my uni career works for me lol.

I can't write very fast, and by the time I finish writing down one thought, the prof has already gone 2 slides ahead. I have to type all my notes on a word document.

THEN, I transcribe my computer notes onto the Power Point print offs. This helps me digest what was said in the lecture, and also accounts for the beginnings of study notes.

I used to just write everything in a note book, but I would fall asleep in my lectures and also halfway through writing, so I could never figure out what I wrote... at least with the computer I can keep up, and it doesn't blur my words :)

My way seems really time consuming, but I am not one of those people that can sit through a lecture without a pen or paper and just absorb everything. ALso if the lecture is boring I can check facebook Or go to Equine.com and pretend i'm buying a horse :laugh:
 
My technique is the polar opposite of lostbunny's, lol. In class I type all of my notes onto the powerpoint slides (converted to pdf's). I use a Mac program called "Skim" to annotate the powerpoints with text boxes, highlighting, underlining, etc. Then, each night after class I outline/summarize all of my notes from that day into word documents, which are my study guides. It is very time consuming and takes real commitment (if we have five lectures in a given day, for example, it will take me close to five hours to summarize them all, and that's after an incredibly long day of lectures and labs and learning). But it is worth it because it really helps that when most of my classmates are just getting around to studying the material for the first time, I have my study guide all ready to go, and have already been reviewing the material all along.

Bottom line is that different things work for different people. Remain flexible and test a few techniques out to see what works for you, but try to adopt a successful new strategy early in the school year so you don't fall behind.

ETA: There are still those who make it through vet school utilizing a cramming strategy, but remember, much of this information will serve you in your future career, so really learning and understanding it is more important than it was for many undergrad classes. No matter the details of specific strategies, I believe that going over material multiple times is the best way to internalize it.
 
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I literally have to write everything down to learn it. I take notes in lectures, and then before exams re-write both the prof's notes and my own into a study guide.

I know that's not something everyone needs to do though... I'm just too ADD to truly absorb everything just by reading, and if I type study guides, I'll get too easily distracted. :laugh:
 
Study habits? What are those? :confused:
 
You'll also find that different things will work best for different classes. Anatomy, I wrote EVERYTHING. Other classes, I am better off sitting and listening, without writing anything. For the most part, I find that if the professor posts powerpoints, or gives note packets out, ahead of time, it's easiest for me to highlight points stressed in lecture and make further notes in the margins.

Similar to moosenanny, I typically go home at the end of every day and make a study guide for each lecture. These are typically based on question guides from professors, but are sometimes just questions I make up for myself. I use a program called Cuecard, that can either generate things in a flashcard type set up, or a study list with question/prompt on the left and answer on the right. For some reason I find the left/right study list works better for me than a vertically oriented word document. I also export a lot of my cards into quizlet.com and use an app on the iPhone to make them infinitely more portable than a stack of note cards.

By the time exams roll around, I've sat through lecture, made a studyguide, and looked over it at least once.
 
Reading lecture notes aloud to myself (as if I'm teaching the material to imaginary students) until I've memorized the stuff is what works best for me. This usually involves reading through the material twice, though for courses that involve lots of details and hardcore memorization (eg. anat&phys, immuno), it can take 3-4 times. I'm also a visual learner so drawing diagrams whenever applicable is useful.
 
I also meant to mention that I draw a lot of diagrams and pictures too. That helped a lot in anatomy and immunology.

Secretaryiga ('s avatar):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3GN_YQKR1k[/youtube]

yillenhulahey. Got it. :)
Hahaha I've seen that. He's so adorable. :love:

I also export a lot of my cards into quizlet.com and use an app on the iPhone to make them infinitely more portable than a stack of note cards.
What iPhone app do you use?
 
What iPhone app do you use?

Flashcards Deluxe. The developer's site for uploading flashcards to the program's server is a pain, but if you make your cards online using quizlet there is an option to upload quizlet card decks directly from the app.
 
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Flashcards Deluxe. The developer's site for uploading flashcards to the program's server is a pain, but if you make your cards online using quizlet there is an option to upload quizlet card decks directly from the app.

Is there a way to share your decks with others?
 
I can't study in public anymore. I've found that my best chance to internalize the material is to read it out loud, and eventually people start to stare. :oops:
 
I literally have to write everything down to learn it. I take notes in lectures, and then before exams re-write both the prof's notes and my own into a study guide.

I know that's not something everyone needs to do though... I'm just too ADD to truly absorb everything just by reading, and if I type study guides, I'll get too easily distracted. :laugh:

+1. I can type a whole page and not remember anything I wrote. I have to write it out. What works best for me is if I can turn the concept into a drawing and memorize the drawing.
 
Is there a way to share your decks with others?

Yep. You register all of your decks under a username. All another person has to do is search your username and all of your decks pop up. This works both on the Quizlet website itself and on the iPhone app. If you're interested in seeing some of mine from this year, my user name over there is Katryana.
 
Yep. You register all of your decks under a username. All another person has to do is search your username and all of your decks pop up. This works both on the Quizlet website itself and on the iPhone app. If you're interested in seeing some of mine from this year, my user name over there is Katryana.
Awesome, I just registered as jajordan. I will keep this app in mind in the fall!
 
I think the most important things for me was to figure out when I study best. I usually don't even bother to try and study before 8 pm on weekdays. Huge waste of time, and it just gets frustrating to gloss over the same material over and over and not absorb it... when magically at 9 pm or so, i can just look at it once and remember it for months. I sleep or work and earn $ instead during those unproductive hours.

Same thing with lectures. I figure out which lecturers are good for my learning style, and which ones aren't. I sit and listen for the ones where I'm likely to learn during class (almost never really take much notes at all, except to jot down a fact or two I KNOW will be important that aren't anywhere in the notes/books). I either don't attend or use that time as nap time if attendance is mandatory.

Helps me stay sane and happy, and still learn as much as I would have if I spent all day studying.
 
I find a mix of a few things work for me.
I take notes in class by hand, but am thinking of maybe typing everything next year.
I read my notes every night but for actual studying I need to write, write and re-write in my own words. I also find explaining helps a lot because when you can explain something, you really understand it. For that reason I find tutoring is very beneficial for both the tutor and tutored :)
I wish I could study with diagrams, but I get bored and feel like I'm wasting my time. So I just stick to writing everything down in my words.
 
I use a program called Cuecard, that can either generate things in a flashcard type set up, or a study list with question/prompt on the left and answer on the right. For some reason I find the left/right study list works better for me than a vertically oriented word document. I also export a lot of my cards into quizlet.com and use an app on the iPhone to make them infinitely more portable than a stack of note cards.

Flash cards have always worked wonders for me, but I'm having issues with making them worthwhile in my science classes. Any advice? I mean, obviously I use them for definitions and the like, but beyond that I'm struggling. Do you only list specific questions that you find in text books? Or do you do kind of a broad question from lectures like, "Describe the full circuit blood takes once it enters the XX," and try to list it off the top of your head? Or would you do something more short like, "where does the blood flow directly after XX"? Or something completely different?
 
My technique is the polar opposite of lostbunny's, lol. In class I type all of my notes onto the powerpoint slides (converted to pdf's). I use a Mac program called "Skim" to annotate the powerpoints with text boxes, highlighting, underlining, etc. Then, each night after class I outline/summarize all of my notes from that day into word documents, which are my study guides. It is very time consuming and takes real commitment (if we have five lectures in a given day, for example, it will take me close to five hours to summarize them all, and that's after an incredibly long day of lectures and labs and learning). But it is worth it because it really helps that when most of my classmates are just getting around to studying the material for the first time, I have my study guide all ready to go, and have already been reviewing the material all along.

Bottom line is that different things work for different people. Remain flexible and test a few techniques out to see what works for you, but try to adopt a successful new strategy early in the school year so you don't fall behind.

ETA: There are still those who make it through vet school utilizing a cramming strategy, but remember, much of this information will serve you in your future career, so really learning and understanding it is more important than it was for many undergrad classes. No matter the details of specific strategies, I believe that going over material multiple times is the best way to internalize it.

So then you have summaries forever on your computer! Brilliant! That sounds like a really good program (Skim). Is this specifically for vet students (with the books that are digital) or can anyone use it?

I make one page study guides per section of whatever I am studying. And I also always rewrite my notes a few times. I am trying to make the switch to using a computer for notes, but I find it much more beneficial to write it out in hand because everything takes longer so that I think about it more.
 
Oh, you know... hitting up Facebook for a bit, then strolling through some SDN threads, then meandering to your email inbox, then getting up to go get a snack from the kitchen....

Thats what my "studying" looks like half the time. Throw in the occasional hulu stop as well.
 
So then you have summaries forever on your computer! Brilliant! That sounds like a really good program (Skim). Is this specifically for vet students (with the books that are digital) or can anyone use it?

Skim is a free download off the internet, for anyone. I think it is only a Mac program, though. Not sure if they have a PC version, but everyone with a PC at Davis uses OneNote. All of our professors post their lectures ahead of time, either as a powerpoint, or a powerpoint file already converted to a pdf. The program allows you to annotate pdfs (so if a powerpoint file is posted for us, we just convert it to a pdf from the print screen).
 
Flash cards have always worked wonders for me, but I'm having issues with making them worthwhile in my science classes. Any advice? I mean, obviously I use them for definitions and the like, but beyond that I'm struggling. Do you only list specific questions that you find in text books? Or do you do kind of a broad question from lectures like, "Describe the full circuit blood takes once it enters the XX," and try to list it off the top of your head? Or would you do something more short like, "where does the blood flow directly after XX"? Or something completely different?

It depends a lot on the class. Some professors give us study questions, or let us know which questions in the text are worth paying attention to, in which case I use those. For viro/bacteriology/parasit, I made a lot of cards that had the name of the organism on one side and other pertinent info on the other (such as species affected, morphology, disease signs). For more process oriented classes, if I have to make my own questions, I tend to try and find a theme to each of the professors power point slides and form a question about it. Example: if all of the points on a slide have to do with the heart valves, I will make a question about the location of the valves, what shape they are, where you hear them, etc; and try to make sure that I use all of the information on the slide to answer the question.
 
Skim is a free download off the internet, for anyone. I think it is only a Mac program, though. Not sure if they have a PC version, but everyone with a PC at Davis uses OneNote. All of our professors post their lectures ahead of time, either as a powerpoint, or a powerpoint file already converted to a pdf. The program allows you to annotate pdfs (so if a powerpoint file is posted for us, we just convert it to a pdf from the print screen).

What makes Skim different from Preview? Right now I use Preview to annotate my pdfs, and it can put in text boxes, highlight, underline, make circles/boxes/arrows, etc. If it offers something extra then maybe I should switch.
 
Thanks Braki for mentioning that! I kept wondering why there was a program just to look at stuff.. I never saw that you could change the document so much. So helpful! Thank you :)
 
What makes Skim different from Preview? Right now I use Preview to annotate my pdfs, and it can put in text boxes, highlight, underline, make circles/boxes/arrows, etc. If it offers something extra then maybe I should switch.

I'm not sure, then, because that's pretty much what I use Skim for. However, the vet school recommends we all use Skim, so we do. I tried annotating a few times on preview, but I find Skim to be much more user-friendly and intuitive. But that's just me. If you can do the same with Preview, then go for it.

ETA: I just opened Preview and it is actually very easy to use. Honestly, the vet school recommended Skim, so I just got used to that program.
 
It depends a lot on the class. Some professors give us study questions, or let us know which questions in the text are worth paying attention to, in which case I use those. For viro/bacteriology/parasit, I made a lot of cards that had the name of the organism on one side and other pertinent info on the other (such as species affected, morphology, disease signs). For more process oriented classes, if I have to make my own questions, I tend to try and find a theme to each of the professors power point slides and form a question about it. Example: if all of the points on a slide have to do with the heart valves, I will make a question about the location of the valves, what shape they are, where you hear them, etc; and try to make sure that I use all of the information on the slide to answer the question.

Perfect. I'm going to try that this fall quarter. I really like the idea of breaking up every little thing into a question. I can see why you use an iPhone app over carrying a stack of cards around, though! You must generate tons of flashcards.

Thank you!
 
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